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News Next Arrowverse Crossover to Include Batwoman

Dick Whitman said:
Adam West and Burt Ward returned as Batman and Robin in those ridiculous Legends of the Superheroes tv specials in 1979. Both voiced the characters for the two animated movies before West’s death. I think this might be the longest time past for an actor to return as a costume superhero.
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West and Ward's first return to the roles was in the 1977 Filmation animated series The New Adventures of Batman. West would later replace Olan Soule as Batman in the later seasons of Super Friends in the early '80s, though Casey Kasem remained as Robin there. (It was the second time West had replaced Soule, since Soule and Kasem had originally played the roles in Filmation's late-'60s Batman cartoon before migrating to Hanna-Barbera's Super Friends and New Scooby-Doo Movies in the '70s.)


Usually these characters are rebooted or reconceived with completely different actors. An actor has their run as the character and are replaced. If tragedy had not struck the lives of George Reeves and Christopher Reeve its possible they could have returned as Superman. But they may never have wanted to or fans and the studio could have seen them as too old.
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The Arrowverse has the advantage of having been able to lay the groundwork for parallel universes. It would've been a lot to spring on audiences for a single episode back in the '90s or so. And The Flash (current series) seeded this revelation once they established that Shipp's Henry Allen had a doppelganger named Jay Garrick, which meant he could potentially have another doppelganger named Barry Allen.
 
It's an interesting one, shared universes are huge now but apart from Super Friends the cartoons didn't start crossing over again until 1997, and then practically every one since featured elements from other DC Comics properties.

In live action the situation is very different, the sides barely touched until Smallville barring Legends of the Super Heroes. However one tradition DC does have is rehiring the actors for guest spots in restarts, often as relatives of their past characters (Kirk Alyn and Noel Neill were in Superman 78; Noel later appeared in Superboy and Returns; Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher were both in Smallville while she did Supergirl; Phyllis Coates was in Lois & Clark) and in animation Adam West, Burt Ward, Kevin Conroy, Tim Daly, George Newburn, Tara Strong, Mark Hamill, Dana Delaney, Clancy Brown etc

JWS as Flash 1990 is the first time an actor has reprised his classic character in the flesh since West & Ward in the 70s? Hopefully it will lead to more - didn't Teri Hatcher say she wanted a Lois and Clark reunion!? Maybe with the whole multiverse thing they could solve the riddle of the two Jimmy Olsens!
 
Danlav05 said:
Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher were both in Smallville while she did Supergirl; !
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Cain's been on SUPERGIRL, too, as Kara's foster father no less.

SUPERGIRL loves its stunt-casting. See also Helen Slater, Lynda Carter, Sarah Douglas, the "Supergirl" from SMALLVILLE (whose name I can never remember how to spell), and others I'm probably forgetting.

Counting down to Annette O'Toole or Kristin Kreuk . . .. :)

EDIT: And let it be noted that O'Toole has already played two major SUPERMAN characters: Lana Lang AND Ma Kent.
 
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Danlav05 said:
JWS as Flash 1990 is the first time an actor has reprised his classic character in the flesh since West & Ward in the 70s?
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No. His 90s Flash costars Amanda Pays, Alex Desert, Mark Hamill, and Vito D'Ambrosio all reprised their roles from that series in the current Flash series in Seasons 1, 2, and 3.
 
DigificWriter said:
No. His 90s Flash costars Amanda Pays, Alex Desert, Mark Hamill, and Vito D'Ambrosio all reprised their roles from that series in the current Flash series in Seasons 1, 2, and 3.
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They reprised Earth-1 versions of their characters, not characters themselves.
 
Greg Cox said:
Cain's been on SUPERGIRL, too, as Kara's foster father no less.
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I'm a bit disappointed that Cain and Hatcher have already had roles on Supergirl. It makes it harder to incorporate Lois & Clark into the Arrowverse. I mean, it's easy to buy that the 1990 show's Barry Allen is a doppelganger of Earth-1 Henry Allen and Earth-3 Jay Garrick, but it's hard to believe that the Earth-38 Jeremiah Danvers could be a doppelganger of Kal-El of Krypton, or conversely that Queen Rhea of Daxam could be a doppelganger of Lois Lane.

SUPERGIRL loves its stunt-casting. See also Helen Slater, Lynda Carter, Sarah Douglas, the "Supergirl" from SMALLVILLE (whose name I can never remember how to spell), and others I'm probably forgetting.

Counting down to Annette O'Toole or Kristin Kreuk . . .. :)
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I'm disappointed they didn't get Lindsay Wagner to play Lynda Carter's vice president. Okay, she wasn't a DC character, but she was the other top superheroine of '70s prime-time TV. Plus she's just generally awesome.
 
Greg Cox said:
Cain's been on SUPERGIRL, too, as Kara's foster father no less.

SUPERGIRL loves its stunt-casting. See also Helen Slater, Lynda Carter, Sarah Douglas, the "Supergirl" from SMALLVILLE (whose name I can never remember how to spell), and others I'm probably forgetting.

Counting down to Annette O'Toole or Kristin Kreuk . . .. :)

EDIT: And let it be noted that O'Toole has already played two major SUPERMAN characters: Lana Lang AND Ma Kent.
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Oh yeah I was thinking Smallville!

The return I really would pay good money for is Batman 89, that comics proposal with Harley, Batgirl, Robin etc was really good - captured the flavour of the Burtonverse perfectly
 
Batwoman said:
?
Of course there's a distinction, they're not the same people.
Harry from Earth 2 isn't the same character as H.R.
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That's not really a valid comparison, IMO, because in the case of the various Wellses, they've largely had distinct names and personalities, whereas Pays, Desert, Hamill, and D'Ambrosio's characters' names and personalities have been identical to those of the 90s Flash characters they played.
 
Newsarama doesn't seem to know (or care) that the version of John Constantine that Matt Ryan voices in Justice League Dark and City of Demons isn't the same version of the character he plays in Constabtine, Arrow, and Legends.
 
DigificWriter said:
That's not really a valid comparison, IMO, because in the case of the various Wellses, they've largely had distinct names and personalities, whereas Pays, Desert, Hamill, and D'Ambrosio's characters' names and personalities have been identical to those of the 90s Flash characters they played.
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There was a Trickster on Earth-1 and Earth-3 that appeared to be identical, there is a Barry Allen on Earth-2 which isn't a speedster, but still had a some what similar personality.

I'm not seeing the issue here.
 
I think the key is to distinguish between an in-universe doppelganger and simply a real-world homage to a fictional character. At first, The Flash bringing back Amanda Pays as a character named Dr. Christina McGee seemed like it was just an example of the latter, a wink to the old-school fans who'd get the reference. But then they established parallel Earths and doppelgangers as an in-story reality, and they showed a brief glimpse of the '90 Flash (and Supergirl) during Barry's first trip to Earth-2. That could still have been just a wink to the audience, but then they kept going with Bellows, Julio, the Trickster, and Prank, and then established that John Wesley Shipp's character Henry Allen had a doppelganger who was the Jay Garrick Flash. So it increasingly seemed that the producers were deliberately implying that the '90s Flash series really existed in the Arrowmultiverse. Now, it seems, they're finally making it explicit.
 
DigificWriter said:
No. His 90s Flash costars Amanda Pays, Alex Desert, Mark Hamill, and Vito D'Ambrosio all reprised their roles from that series in the current Flash series in Seasons 1, 2, and 3.
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Ah yes - i wonder now 90s Flash is on the scene a reunion of these actors is on the cards?

And FWIW Mark Hamill also played The Trickster (who he's also voiced in animation) of Earth-3 Jay Garrick's world, who may or may not actually be an homage to his Joker from DCAU?
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Stephen Amell shared this - To say I am HAPPY is an understatement!
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That is cool. I'm glad that the few good remaining Arrowverse writers always seem to get the yearly crossover, it makes for an enjoyable experience even though I'd never watch a show like Arrow by itself at this point. Plus, all those people who claimed the 90s Flash thing was only an easter egg and not part of the multiverse now have to eat their words, which is nice.
 
I'm thinking of starting a totally unfounded rumour that the reason they're publicizing the return of the '90s Flash so much is to cover up a secret appearance by the 2006 Superman as well. :whistle:
 
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